Meet the pet dog who’s a paid menswear model

A couple’s boredom launched a career as a fashion model for their 4-year-old pet dog.

“We were bored one Saturday afternoon so we dressed Bodhi up in serious menswear,” Yena Kim tells the Mirror. She and her partner, Dave Fung, started dressing up Bodhi, their Shiba Inu. They created an Instagram page for Bodhi, and posted the photos of him wearing suits, ties, and glasses. Bodhi has more than 146,000 Instagram followers, and designers such as Coach, Salvatore Ferragamo, and ASOS have signed Bodhi up as a paid model for their brands.

“When we put the clothes on him he just lit up,” said Kim. “He started posing for us and everything. He looked amazing, like Fantastic Mr. Fox, so we posted it on Facebook as a joke. After receiving such positive feedback, we created a blog for Menswear Dog, and people went crazy. It was even featured on GQ Magazine’s site the next day.”

Thanks to the publicity, major brands are sending Bodhi clothes to model for them. Kim and Fung spend their weekends shopping for new outfits for Bodhi.

Yena works as a fashion designer for Ralph Lauren, and Dave is a graphic designer. They are developing their own clothing line for dogs, and plan to give some of the proceeds to animal rescue organizations.

“At first people thought we were Photoshopping a dog’s head on a man’s body,” said Fung. “Initially we got some criticism from people who thought he might be uncomfortable in human clothes. But it turned into people criticizing his outfits and telling us what shirt would look better with what tie. That’s when we knew we were successful.”